A Look at Major Earthquakes Last 50 Years: "A Look at Major Earthquakes Last 50 Years
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 8, 2005; 9:04 AM
-- Major earthquakes around the world since early last century:
_ Oct. 8, 2005: Pakistani Kashmir; magnitude 7.6; hundreds killed.
_ March 28, 2005: Sumatra, Indonesia; magnitude 8.7; up to 1,000 killed.
_ Dec. 26, 2004: Sumatra, Indonesia; magnitude 9.0; more than 176,000 people killed in 11 countries from earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
_ Dec. 26, 2003: Bam, Iran; magnitude 6.5; more than 26,000 killed.
_ May 21, 2003: Northern Algeria; magnitude 6.8; nearly 2,300 killed.
_ March 25, 2002: Northern Afghanistan; magnitude 5.8; up to 1,000 killed.
_ Jan. 26, 2001: India; magnitude 7.9; at least 2,500 killed. Estimates put death toll as high as 13,000.
_ Sept. 21, 1999: Taiwan; magnitude 7.6; 2,400 killed.
_ Aug. 17, 1999: Western Turkey; magnitude 7.4; 17,000 killed.
_ Jan. 25, 1999: Western Colombia; magnitude 6; 1,171 killed.
_ May 30, 1998: Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan; magnitude 6.9; as many as 5,000 killed.
_ Jan. 17, 1995: Kobe, Japan; magnitude 7.2; more than 6,000 killed.
_ Sept. 30, 1993: Latur, India; magnitude 6.0; as many as 10,000 killed.
_ June 21, 1990: Northwest Iran; magnitude 7.3-7.7; 50,000 killed.
_ Dec. 7, 1988: Northwest Armenia; magnitude 6.9; 25,000 killed.
_ Sept. 19, 1985: Central Mexico; magnitude 8.1; more than 9,500 killed.
_ Sept. 16, 1978: Northeast Iran; magnitude 7.7; 25,000 killed.
_ July 28, 1976: Tangshan, China; magnitude 7.8-8.2; 240,000 killed.
_ Feb. 4, 1976: Guatemala; magnitude 7.5; 22,778 killed.
_ Feb. 29, 1960: Southwest Atlantic coast in Morocco; magnitude 5.7; some 12,000 killed, town of Agadir destroyed."
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Term Limits for Supreme Justices?
Power Line: Reaching our limits: "Reaching our limits
Peggy Noonan has a long, insightful column about the Miers nomination. She concludes by advocating term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
I've supported such term limits, and the Roberts confirmation process coupled with the Miers nomination throws the case for them into sharper relief. Under the current rules of engagement (the Ginsburg precedent), nominees refuse to tell the Senate and the public much about what they are likely to do on the bench. And the large number of Democrats willing to vote against Roberts on ideological grounds increases the incentive for presidents to nominate individuals who haven't publicly said much about constitutional issues. Finally, Miers notwithstanding, we can expect relatively young nominees going forward.
In short, we are getting less and less information about individuals who are likely to serve on the Court for longer and longer periods of time in an era when the Court has never been more important. In this perfect storm, the case for term limits seems overwhelming, and my skepticism about the possibility of enacting them is diminishing a bit. Whatever happens to Miers (and I'm pretty sure she will be confirmed), the process will leave a bad taste in the mouth of many Senators on both sides."
Peggy Noonan has a long, insightful column about the Miers nomination. She concludes by advocating term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
I've supported such term limits, and the Roberts confirmation process coupled with the Miers nomination throws the case for them into sharper relief. Under the current rules of engagement (the Ginsburg precedent), nominees refuse to tell the Senate and the public much about what they are likely to do on the bench. And the large number of Democrats willing to vote against Roberts on ideological grounds increases the incentive for presidents to nominate individuals who haven't publicly said much about constitutional issues. Finally, Miers notwithstanding, we can expect relatively young nominees going forward.
In short, we are getting less and less information about individuals who are likely to serve on the Court for longer and longer periods of time in an era when the Court has never been more important. In this perfect storm, the case for term limits seems overwhelming, and my skepticism about the possibility of enacting them is diminishing a bit. Whatever happens to Miers (and I'm pretty sure she will be confirmed), the process will leave a bad taste in the mouth of many Senators on both sides."
Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Breaking America's grip on the net
Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Breaking America's grip on the net: "After troubled negotiations in Geneva, the US may be forced to relinquish control of the internet to a coalition of governments "
READ IT HERE!
READ IT HERE!
BREITBART.COM - Just The News
BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "Here is the text of former Vice President Al Gore's remarks at the We"
Good speach !
Good speach !
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Energy Prob Solved
EconoPundit
How to achieve full energy independence in fifteen years...
Here's the EconoPundit national energy policy.
1. Impose an immediate and permanent oil import tax set on a sliding scale between $95/bbl and current world price. If world price is $70, the tax is $25/bbl. If world price sinks to $35, the tax automatically rises to $60/bbl.
This tax is permanent. Energy costs as seen by households and businesses will initially rise substantially but will quickly stabilize and won't fluctuate even one tiny bit from year to year. What now goes "up and down" is import tax revenue, not domestic energy costs. It is possible there are massive cost reductions in many if not all areas of production to be realized if energy costs are permanently and credibly stabilized.
2. Spend some of the new massive revenue on whatever redistribution is necessary to ease the transition to the new economy. Spend some of it on alternative energy and conservation. Spend some of it on lowering other taxes here and there. Heck, I don't care.
3. Spend the rest on speeding the development of domestic recoverable oil shale. James Perry, who provided this link, describes the situation as follows:
The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, we roughly derive an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. For policy planning purposes, it is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint in our estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
At current rates of consumption these deposits would keep a U.S. petroleum-based economy going for another 100 years with no oil imports.
How to achieve full energy independence in fifteen years...
Here's the EconoPundit national energy policy.
1. Impose an immediate and permanent oil import tax set on a sliding scale between $95/bbl and current world price. If world price is $70, the tax is $25/bbl. If world price sinks to $35, the tax automatically rises to $60/bbl.
This tax is permanent. Energy costs as seen by households and businesses will initially rise substantially but will quickly stabilize and won't fluctuate even one tiny bit from year to year. What now goes "up and down" is import tax revenue, not domestic energy costs. It is possible there are massive cost reductions in many if not all areas of production to be realized if energy costs are permanently and credibly stabilized.
2. Spend some of the new massive revenue on whatever redistribution is necessary to ease the transition to the new economy. Spend some of it on alternative energy and conservation. Spend some of it on lowering other taxes here and there. Heck, I don't care.
3. Spend the rest on speeding the development of domestic recoverable oil shale. James Perry, who provided this link, describes the situation as follows:
The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, we roughly derive an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. For policy planning purposes, it is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint in our estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.
At current rates of consumption these deposits would keep a U.S. petroleum-based economy going for another 100 years with no oil imports.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming
Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming: "Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming
By Robert Roy Britt"
By Robert Roy Britt"
Friday, September 30, 2005
Weird Words: Tontine
Weird Words: Tontine: "A system of annuities in which the benefits pass to the surviving subscribers until only one is left.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
protein wisdom
protein wisdom: "It was the luck of the imperial draw that the American project in Iraq came to the rescue of the Shiites--and of the Kurds. We may not fully appreciate the historical change we unleashed on the Arab world, but we have given liberty to the stepchildren of the Arab world. We have overturned an edifice of material and moral power that dates back centuries. The Arabs railing against U.S. imperialism and arrogance in Iraq will never let us in on the real sources of their resentments. In the way of “modern” men and women with some familiarity with the doctrines of political correctness, they can’t tell us that they are aggrieved that we have given a measure of self-worth to the seminarians of Najaf and the highlanders of Kurdistan. But that is precisely what gnaws at them.
An edifice of Arab nationalism built by strange bedfellows--the Sunni political and bureaucratic elites, and the Christian Arab pundits who abetted them in the idle hope that they would be spared the wrath of the street and of the mob--was overturned in Iraq. And America, at times ambivalent about its mission, brought along with its military gear a suspicion of the Shiites, a belief that the Iraqi Shiites were an extension of Iran, a community destined to build a sister-republic of the Iranian theocracy. Washington has its cadre of Arabists reared on Arab nationalist historiography. This camp had a seat at the table, but the very scale of what was at play in Iraq, and the redemptionism at the heart of George Bush’s ideology, dwarfed them."
An edifice of Arab nationalism built by strange bedfellows--the Sunni political and bureaucratic elites, and the Christian Arab pundits who abetted them in the idle hope that they would be spared the wrath of the street and of the mob--was overturned in Iraq. And America, at times ambivalent about its mission, brought along with its military gear a suspicion of the Shiites, a belief that the Iraqi Shiites were an extension of Iran, a community destined to build a sister-republic of the Iranian theocracy. Washington has its cadre of Arabists reared on Arab nationalist historiography. This camp had a seat at the table, but the very scale of what was at play in Iraq, and the redemptionism at the heart of George Bush’s ideology, dwarfed them."
Sunday, September 25, 2005
"Real Racism" by Sharon�Hughes
"Real Racism" by Sharon�Hughes: "Driessen also mentions the European Union, World Health Organization, World Bank, UNICEF, and environmental groups like Greenpeace, and others as being on the forefront of preventing the most malaria-ridden nations from using the same insecticides that eradicated the disease here in America. This begs the question: Why are the voices of human rights groups and churches silent about this ''subtle'' form of racism, and human-rights abuse? You tell me."
"Real Racism" by Sharon�Hughes
"Real Racism" by Sharon�Hughes: "Here’s an even more far-reaching form of racism: Letting Africans die because of radical environmentalist white idealogues’ activism. Paul Driessen, senior policy advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality and former environmental policy advocate, talked with me about this issue on my radio show. He said what few are willing and courageous enough to talk about.
Did you know that in 2004 alone malaria took the lives of more African children than any other infectious disease, and according to UNICEF--three times more than HIV/AIDS? How about that malaria infects 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and kills up to 2 million (half of them children) every year? Why? Primarily because of global environmental laws that prohibit the use of DDT spraying.
Paul Driessen points out in his article, ”Double Standards on Disease Control”:
“From colonial times until the 1940s, malaria was the American disease,” says Dr. Robert Desowitz, professor of tropical medicine at the University of North Carolina. At the dawn of the twentieth century, it thrived from New York to Florida, from North Carolina to California. Up to 7 million Americans were stricken by it every year until the mid-1920s, and 3,900 died in 1936. For centuries, it struck down people of all ages in England, Holland, Italy, and other parts of Europe. But by the early 1950s, it was gone, and all but forgotten. How was this possible? We used DDT, window screens and other measures to gradually eradicate the malaria parasite from its human and insect hosts. Today, we still spray pesticides (mostly by airplanes) to control mosquitoes and the West Nile virus that some carry. But we apply a vastly different standard when it comes to poor developing countries that are still wracked by malaria. “ "
Did you know that in 2004 alone malaria took the lives of more African children than any other infectious disease, and according to UNICEF--three times more than HIV/AIDS? How about that malaria infects 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and kills up to 2 million (half of them children) every year? Why? Primarily because of global environmental laws that prohibit the use of DDT spraying.
Paul Driessen points out in his article, ”Double Standards on Disease Control”:
“From colonial times until the 1940s, malaria was the American disease,” says Dr. Robert Desowitz, professor of tropical medicine at the University of North Carolina. At the dawn of the twentieth century, it thrived from New York to Florida, from North Carolina to California. Up to 7 million Americans were stricken by it every year until the mid-1920s, and 3,900 died in 1936. For centuries, it struck down people of all ages in England, Holland, Italy, and other parts of Europe. But by the early 1950s, it was gone, and all but forgotten. How was this possible? We used DDT, window screens and other measures to gradually eradicate the malaria parasite from its human and insect hosts. Today, we still spray pesticides (mostly by airplanes) to control mosquitoes and the West Nile virus that some carry. But we apply a vastly different standard when it comes to poor developing countries that are still wracked by malaria. “ "
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